


Idiots on the Road

by Ignicula



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris (Video Game)
Genre: Insomnia, Kinda, Memory Loss, Platonic Cuddling, Slight spoilers for Alicization Lycoris, Tsundere Medina, Yujikiri if you squint but I only wrote what was already in the game's canon so...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25248658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignicula/pseuds/Ignicula
Summary: Medina Orthinanos's lonely path to become stronger has suddenly changed, two strange boys forcing themselves onto the same path as her for reasons she can't even begin to fathom. She's not quite sure what to make of them, but her goal remains unchanged.And yes, she really does hate both of them for being nosy and not letting her get rid of them. She doesn't like either of them at all, thank you very much.
Kudos: 14





	Idiots on the Road

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, I know I already wrote something on Kirito and Eugeo going to Centoria... then the game came out and I wrote another one. Seeing as the gameverse functions on a completely different canon it deserved its own.  
> Enjoy.

Medina Orthinanos was many things. Swordsman, Orthinanos, Noble, Defect; All of those titles could be applied to her. What she was not was weak. 

She supposes that’s why the two boys jumping into what should have been  _ her  _ fight annoyed her so much. She was more than enough to defeat three lynx on her own but they jumped in anyways.

_ They piss me off. _

Still, the stew Kirito and Eugeo had provided for dinner was good and she… appreciated being able to sleep in a tent instead of under the stars.

Even still, she can’t bring herself to sleep. Even though the two fumbling idiots seem harmless, experience has taught her that there are ways that a man can harm a woman that doesn’t break the taboo index, especially if she drops her guard. The one time anyone had tried, she’d been well within her rights to act against it. Despite how everyone saw her she was still a second-ranked noble who was well within her right to execute judicial authority.

Medina lied still, hand on her sword, and waited awake, eyes staring at the tent’s roof. Outside all she hears is the gurgle of the nearby stream, rustle of wind through the trees and grass, and the chirping of crickets. 

She turns her head to the tent flaps, tired but sleepless.  _ Come to think of it, nobody’s on watch, huh? Not very smart after we spent the day fighting beasts, and those two are sleeping outside. _

She sits up and decides she’ll at least make a circuit around camp to make sure the area is secure. The two idiots aside, she doesn’t want to wind up eaten alive in her sleep. 

As she opens the tent flap, her eyes drift over to the two lumps sleeping on the other side of the extinguished fire.  _ The black-haired one is skilled, but he doesn’t have a very strong weapon. The blond is less skilled and more skittish, but I can’t deny that blade of his makes up for it.  _

_ Earlier too when they helped me with those beasts, they fought as an impeccable team. Their skill is magnificent. As I am now, I couldn’t fight both of them at once without resorting to dishonorable tactics. _

She walks a few meters away from camp and begins to circle, examining the area with one hand on her sword.

Despite her sleeplessness, the night is calm and quiet. Aside from the occasional firefly fluttering about to illuminate the clear water and green grass, there is nothing to interrupt the nighttime scenery.

_ It’s peaceful, _ she thinks.  _ Too peaceful. _

She doesn’t like it. So far she’s taken all the most dangerous roads, fought the most dangerous beasts. Her nights have been an exercise in training themselves - detecting enemies before they get close, sleeping light enough to notice the slightest disturbance, hiding her campsites where no creatures could stumble across them.

_ Maybe that’s why I can’t sleep now. _

Their campsite is fairly in the open, and there are two other people who share it with her. She isn’t used to it yet.

_...Perhaps it will be good for me to get accustomed to being around other people. Eventually, when I restore honor to the name Orthinanos, I imagine that I will wind up being forced to interact with people like this more often. _

She continues to circle around the camp, restless, and her thoughts stray to the path that took her here, and she idly considers the path ahead of her.

_ I’ll head to Zakkaria with Kirito and Eugeo, I suppose, and when we arrive I’ll continue on to Centoria, fighting the beasts I find on my way in order to hone my swordsmanship. Once I arrive, I will use my noble status in order to enter the Centoria Swordsmanship Academy and become an elite disciple. I will continue on and become an integrity knight in order to restore honor to the name Orthinanos. _

_ I will not allow my family to go down in history as Defects. _

With that in mind and the campsite secured, she walks back to camp and pauses.

She’s not sure how many circuits she made, but somehow wound up heading back to the campsite on the side Kirito and Eugeo were sleeping on. She’s not sure what she had expected after wandering this close, but they’re both still asleep.

Her eyes drift over them and she snorts in amusement.  _ So defenseless… you can hardly tell how strong they are like this. _

Eugeo is sleeping soundly, eyes closed, hair ruffled, a slight smile on his face. One arm is splayed out to the side in Kirito’s direction in a move he is most certainly going to regret if he doesn't already. The black haired boy, sleeping in the same state of chaos he seemed to live in, seems to have taken advantage of this only probably without noticing and has sometime in the night seized the arm with his own and is now using it as a pillow. A light snore occasionally leaving his mouth as he sleeps more deeply and comfortably than Medina has in weeks.

It's as she examines them like this that a certain detail becomes apparent: they aren't sleeping with their weapons nearby.

The Blue Rose Sword and Kirito’s iron blade are resting in a pile by the fire by the package with unknown contents - likely a sword based on its shape but also just as likely not due to its lack of use in their earlier battles - and quite a bit away from the two sleepers.

_ How careless of them. _

She’s about to walk past them, but pauses and looks down at them again. Eugeo mumbles in his sleep, head turning away from Kirito, hand twitching slightly in discomfort.

_ That Kirito... he's going to get yelled at in the morning. _

She quietly moves over to the blades with the intent of moving the pile closer to the duo so that they can defend themselves if danger  _ does  _ appear in the night.

The keyword here is  _ intent.  _ The blue blade was heavy enough on its own, but with the other sword and the strange bundle on top of it she can’t move it at all.

She gives up quickly, giving the pile an astonished look.  _ What in the world… It can’t be that steel sword. What do they even have in that bundle? _

_ Either way it’s none of my business. I shouldn’t have been trying to move their things in the first place no matter the intent. _

She casts a look back at the boys, both sleeping like babies with no chance of waking up anytime soon.  _ Not like they’d wake up in time to use them to fight anyways. _

She walks over to one of the tree stumps they’d sat on around the fire when they’d eaten earlier, mind about as far from sleep as one could be, and just… watches.

An owl hoots in the distance to keep her company, the only movement nearby the sleepy shifting of the two boys slowly growing closer to the other heat sources.  _ I’m somewhat curious as to how they’ll react when they wake up like that. I doubt that Eugeo will be pleased. _

She stands and walks back into the tent she’s borrowing for the night, lies down, and without prompting, her mind shuts down and finally allows her to sleep.

* * *

“Medina!” The name pierces through her dreams. “Oi, Medina!”

She grumbles as she wakes up, startled to realize the approach of the two boys hadn’t done so already. Kirito is standing by the tent flap, Eugeo behind him, both wearing looks of concern. “Are you alright? It looked like you were having an awful nightmare.”

She remembers her dream, more flashbacks to her father’s death, to her oath. They haunt her every waking and sleeping moment, and she will never allow herself to forget. “It’s nothing.”

“You’re sure?” Eugeo’s gentler voice cuts through. “You broke out in a cold sweat.”

Suddenly it strikes her even through this situation that she missed Eugeo’s reaction to Kirito stealing his arm for the night. She feels strangely like she missed out on something, but brushes it aside. 

“It was just a dream,” She answers his question. He’s an idiot like his black-haired friend but neither of them are idiots she can say she truly dislikes. 

They part ways, and Medina begins to pack, noting that the two boys have begun packing their own things. She’d been asleep, but still. If she could be woken up in the middle of the night by a rabbit hopping by, then she should have woken up when the two idiots did. They’re hardly the most quiet of people, after all. When she’s done, she shoulders her pack and clips the sheath of her sword back to her hip. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” She approaches her travelling companions where they’re standing and talking by the roadside, causing them to look up in her direction. “We should get moving soon.”

Kirito blinks in confusion and dismay. “What? But what about breakfast?”

Eugeo groans beside him and Medina rolls her eyes at the question.  _ This glutton.  _ “Why are you so obsessed with food?”

Eugeo hefts his own pack up, wincing and making sounds of pain. “Oww…  _ Someone  _ decided to use my arm as a pillow, so it’s sore all over,” he says with clear irritation in his voice. His eyes drift pointedly and accusingly to the other boy. 

“Sorry,” Kirito says, completely unapologetic, “but we didn’t have any pillows. I really had no choice!”

Eugeo glares at him. “That doesn’t make it okay.”

“Unbelievable.” Medina sighs.  _ And here I am trying to get on the road… Perhaps I should get them a room and leave them to it?  _ “You still have food leftover from last night, don’t you? How much life is left on it?”

“Oh, um…” Kirito opens a stacia window over the cold cooking pot. “Still enough to be edible!”

“Really?” Eugeo asks, peeking over his shoulder, true disbelief in his voice. It turns to surprise when he looks. “Woah, it really does! I noticed you did something to it when you were cooking it, what was that?”

“A trick I learned from…” The boy frowns, put off. “Um… someone I knew, I think.”

_ He thinks?  _ She wants to ask about that, but decides against it. Being nosy will just invite this already nosy person to intensify their nosiness. 

“Are your memories coming back?”

_ A lost child of Vecta, perhaps? _

“For a second, I think. Last night too… I almost felt like I’d seen someone cooking things like this before and was trying to do what they did… but I couldn’t remember who was doing the cooking, or even what they were making or what I was trying to copy. Weird, right?”

“No,” Eugeo replies, “it’s like how you remembered to use a sword, right? You don’t remember where you learned or who taught you, but you still remember the skills.”

She tunes out the rest of their conversation, feeling an emotion she vaguely classifies as pity before she forces it aside. In his place, Medina certainly would not want anyone to pity her. She doesn’t even know the full situation, so she shouldn’t be so quick to judge and should treat others with the respect she desired for herself.

They heat up the food, and Medina is surprised to find that it is, if not exactly as tasty as it was the night prior, still more than just edible. They finish off the stew pot and the boys begin to pack, mind drifting into thought.

_ Honestly… the world really is full of mysteries and coincidences. Here I am, the last Orthinanos seeking to redeem my family name with two monstrous fighters, one of whom is a lost child of vector. We’ll part ways soon, thankfully. I can’t say I’ll miss them, but knowing them so far has been interesting. I’ll be sure to remember them in case our futures have us crossing paths again. _

“Okay, I’m good to go!” Kirito calls cheerfully. He’s the most energetic, probably because he’s the only one that actually got a good night’s rest. 

Eugeo follows behind, favoring the arm Kirito didn’t sleep on, and approaches Medina with that infuriatingly pure and innocent look on his face. “You okay, Medina?”

“Why do you ask?” 

“You’re acting a little different this morning,” Eugeo replies. 

_ If I’m acting any different than normal it’s because you two piss me off.  _ “I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, that’s good then.” Eugeo gives that gentle, kind smile. Medina kind of wants to dunk him in the frigid waters of the river to get it off his face but refrains. Doing so would just put her on the same level as the black-haired moron.

Instead, she lets him walk ahead of her, grits her teeth, tells herself that yes, she really  _ does  _ hate both of them and does  _ not  _ actually think they’re actually loveable dorks, and follows.

_ It’s going to be a long way to Zakkaria, isn’t it? _

**Author's Note:**

> Medina swears she's not Tsundere. She really, REALLY dislikes both Kirito and Eugeo.


End file.
